(Forwarded to the list after Max's permission. I've commented inline,
also added Allan's comments)
Hi Max,
On Sep 9, 2006, at 6:40 PM, Max Lein wrote:
> Dear Haris:
>
> You've asked for user feedback on the LaTeX bundle (I'm Max Lein
> who posted on the textmate mailing list).
> To be honest, I didn't know about many features until I've seen
> your webcast … :-) You're doing great work, I use your bundle
> pretty much on a daily basis (I'm a mathematical physicist). I'll
> be overly critical here to help you make your bundle even better.
Thanks for the feedback!
> I would think (i) is my most important suggestion. There are some
> commands I have a tendency to misspell -- \smallksip, I mean
> \smallskip is one of them.
>
> (i) No known command list: suggestion: type command: text stays
> grayish-blue until a command is recognized. Then the text turns
> dark blue. Basically there should be user feedback whenever a
> command is recognized.
>
> I can provide you with a list of `official' LaTeX commands if needed.
>
> Obviously, something similar should be implemented in math mode as
> well (start with dark red which changes to red once a command is
> recognized).
allan: (i) I prefer that as well — if we can get a list, that’d be
great!
me: I agree too. Max (and anyone else as well), if you provide us
with the commands, for within math and out of math, then we'll add
them in.
>
> (ii) Sometimes when beginning inline formulae, the whole screen
> blinks as if there is a syntax error.
allan: (ii) this is because $ is a smart-typing pair, and it finds
that there is a “starting” $ outside the screen — not sure how
to best address that (probably we want to keep it a smart typing pair)
me: I would say that's a good enough reason to use \( \) instead of $ $
> (iii) Footnotes and marginpars should be marked within the text;
> perhaps the footnote's/marginpar's text could even be folded (not
> sure if automatic foldmark recognition works on a bundle level).
allan: (iii) marking: yes, folding: we can’t do w/o having the
braces align
me: The text in the footnote gets a scope of meta.footnote.latex
So if you add that scope to your coloring theme and add some color to
it, you'll get highlighted footnotes. Not immediately possible for
marginpars, but we are thinking of matching those as well and giving
them some scope extending both footnotes and marginpars, so that you
could color both of them at the same time.
Update: marginpars are now matched with scope
meta.paragraph.marginpar.latex, so you can color them as you like.
> (iv) Use input instead of include when dragging a .tex document
> into another: afaik include is deprecated and input is preferred
> instead. You cannot `include' some bundles for instance (diagxy
> comes to mind), you have to use input instead.
allan: (iv) probably then we should even markup include as
invalid.deprecated
me: I don't think \include is deprecated. I use \include for
different chapter of a book etc, and it does a number of special
things like clear all the floats, start on a new page, generate
separate aux files etc.
Of course, you can easily change this in your own copy, by opening
the bundle editor and finding the appropriate drag command. All you
have to do is change the \\\\include that appears there to \\\\input.
> (v) Forget about the deprecated math environments `\[ … \]' and `\
> ( … \)', just remove them from your bundle. Guidelines by relevant
> journals suggest to use specific environments anyway (align for
> instance).
allan: (v) I’m all for removing stuff, especially when deprecated ;)
me: I would need some stronger evidence that it is deprecated. As far
as I understand, the alternative to \( \) would be $ $, and I don't
see what advantages that has except that it is much harder to parse
the file looking for math in it, and if you miss one of the $ you
might not find out until much much later.
As for \[, \], I again don't think they are deprecated, but I would
love to be proven wrong. The only alternative I see is \begin
{equation*}, which requires the amsmath package. I might possibly
agree with you that in the context of writing math papers for
submission to journals, one might want to avoid \[, \], (though still
I would need to see some strong evidence for that), but I don't see
why I shouldn't be using it in the notes for my students for
instance. Replacing them all by \begin{equation*} is a single search
and replace anyway. (Note to self: Actually, having a command that
toggles the various math environments might not be a bad idea at all.)
Do you have references to these guidelines of these journals
(including non-math/physics journals)?
> (vi) Inline formulas should have a grayish background so it's
> easier to see where formulas begin and where they end. (This one is
> also important to me.)
allan: (vi) that’d be a theme-thing, as long as the grammar marks
them up
me: Do you want the background for inline formulas to be different
than the one for multiline formulas? Because as things are already,
you can target the scope math.tex in your theme, and that would color
all math however you tell it to.
> (vii) You already have tab triggers for section, subsection and
> subsubsection, so how come chapter is missing?
allan: (vii) oversight (and we rarely need it)
me: Basically, initially we were trying to keep the number of
snippets at a bare minimum because of the way they were showing up in
the menu, as a flat list. On top of that, most of those can instead
be accomplished via the “Insert Command…” command, along with
customizing it through the LaTeX Configuration file, so the other
maintainers had a hard time even convincing me to keep the section
ones in. Now that we can create submenus, we've toyed with the idea
of adding more snippets, so any ideas on what other snippets to
include are welcome.
>
> (viii) A way to execute bibtex (and pdflatex twice to see whether
> all additional citations have been included).
allan: (viii) latexmk.pl should do that — maybe we should make this
the default, not sure if that would bother anyone (maybe some
workflows would mean much more time typesetting)
me: latexmk.pl will actually do a lot more for you. The Help file
should describe how to set it up. I'd personally prefer not to have
it as the default. It is however easy to set it in your system.
> (ix) Closing environments: when I manually type \begin{environment}
> and then close the environment, the `\end{environment}' which is
> added is indented like the text within the environment. Hence,
> TextMate's code folding does not recognize the block.
allan: (ix) http://macromates.com/ticket/show?ticket_id=B34CCC0C --
the request might be granted, but use begin⇥ or ⌘{ until then
me: just follow the workaround suggested in that ticket (and most
importantly, don't manually type \begin{environment}).
> Now concerning the Help. The help is nicely structured, although I
> miss a nice webpage with the key features of your bundle. That
> would have helped me to use more of the functions included in your
> bundle.
Hm, that was actually partly our intent with rewriting the help file
this way. To make it easy to find out how to do stuff. Looking at the
bundle is of course the best way to find out what commands are
available. How is the help lacking in showing you what the bundle can
do?
>
> (i) A glossary of TM_LATEX_BLABLA variables. That would be really
> helpful, especially for people who just want to check out what you
> can do with the LaTeX bundle.
There are basically only five such variables, most of them having to
do with more particular workflow setups:
TM_LATEX_VIEWER if you don't want to use the built in previewer
TM_LATEX_ERRLVL if you want some finer control on what errors
show up
TM_LATEX_COMPILER if you want to use latexmk.pl
TM_LATEX_OPTIONS for any options you might want to add to the
command line call to the compiler.
and finally, TM_LATEX_MASTER, the only one of more frequent use, when
setting that a master document should be used for the compiling.
There used to be a section containing all the variables, back when
there were 10 of them, but we thought that since there are not that
many of them, we'd just mention them in the corresponding section of
the help file.
Basically we are trying to keep the help at ar reasonable size, while
still making sure it maintains all the important information.
> (ii) Overview over key functions (auto completion of citations, etc.).
Isn't the explanation in section 5.2 of the manual adequate for that?
In general that's the purpose of the entire section 5. In what ways
is that failing?
>
> If you wish to post this on a mailing list, feel free to do so. As
> an avid user, I would like to participate in the discussion,
> though :-)
>
> Greetings from Germany
>
> Max
Thanks again for your feedback (and let me thank in advance everyone
else participating in this discussion). There's a lot of areas in
which the LaTeX bundle could be improved, and because of the very
diverse group of people using it it's hard to know what would help
every individual user. So your feedback is instrumental in seeing the
needs of the users of the bundle.
Haris
Hi there,
Using the Blogging bundle, when I drag
an image, I now have those errors :
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi.rb:279: warning:
already initialized constant CR
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi.rb:282: warning:
already initialized constant LF
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi.rb:285: warning:
already initialized constant EOL
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi.rb:287: warning:
already initialized constant REVISION
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi.rb:289: warning:
already initialized constant NEEDS_BINMODE
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi.rb:292: warning:
already initialized constant PATH_SEPARATOR
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi.rb:313: warning:
already initialized constant HTTP_STATUS
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi.rb:317: warning:
already initialized constant RFC822_DAYS
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi.rb:320: warning:
already initialized constant RFC822_MONTHS
It appeared after updating to TM v.1248. It was working
fine before that...
TIA :)
Hi!
Using CJK in TextMate from time to time I would be interested what
other users who need CJK-input do to circumvent the problems of
CJK-input in TextMate.
Right now I usually use Sidenote (http://www.chatelp.org/?s=Sidenote)
if I have to put in some CJK-text. Typing it in there and pasting it
then to the fitting place in TextMate. It's quite handy if you have
only to type in small pieces of CJK-text.
What are other people doing?
Niels
Hello,
I've been trying to buy TextMate and it's proven to be quite
difficult. The website says I do not need a Paypal account to do so,
but using the option of directly buying with a debit card fails (I
had someone else tried, and he had the same problem so it's not just
my card). So I did open a Paypal account, but I won't be able to use
it until they verify my card, which is taking days.
This might be a peculiarity of using Paypal from France, but I was
wondering if others had had the same bad experience, and how they
managed to get around it. TextMate is great, but I only have 3 demo
days left :(
By the way, if there is a solution, I have another potential buyer in
my office (the subversion integration is the feature that sold
him ;-) ).
Alan
--
Alan Schmitt <http://alan.petitepomme.net/>
The hacker: someone who figured things out and made something cool
happen.
.O.
..O
OOO
There doesn't seem to be a way to remove the folding markers from the gutter
once they've been set.
Is there something obvious that I'm not doing or doing incorrectly?
Thanks,
Dan J.
--
Daniel Jewett
http://www.solidether.net
dan(a)solidether.net
1-914-332-7513
The thread "Deleting files from the project drawer" reminded me that
I've been meaning to ask about duplicating files. In the finder there
is an option to duplicate a file giving it a name something like
"copy of index.php". There are plenty of times I don't want to start
from scratch and would like to duplicate a file and just change some
minor things. Is there a reason this isn't a part of the context menu
in the project drawer? If not I'd like this be a feature request for
the next version. :)
Perhaps to make it better than the Finder's "duplicate" option maybe
choosing it in TM could not only duplicate the file and name the file
"copy of index.php" but also select the "copy of index" portion of
the name for immediate renaming, leaving the extension ".php". That
would be pretty slick and useful.
Josh
Hi,
Problems with the MySQL Table Browser. I have exactly the same
experience as user Mark Lacas in this conversation: http://
comments.gmane.org/gmane.editors.textmate.general/12735
Is there any progress and/or help you can give on this issue?
Thanks
_________________
George
Hi,
I'm sure this is a simple question. In an HTML file, Commend-B wraps
the selection in <strong></strong> tags. I've just installed the
MediaWiki bundle, and want to add my own snippet to do the same, but
wrap between ''' marks. I created a snippet in the MediaWiki bundle,
set Key Equivalent to Comment-B, and scope to
"text.html.mediawiki" (which is what is reported when I do a Control-
Shift-P in the document to view the current scope. However, I still
get <strong> tags instead of '''. What have I done wrong here?
TIA
_________________
George
Instead of tying find/replace in files to a projects, it would be nice
to find all files in a directory or its descendants that contain a
regular expression.
Or am I a fool, and this is already easy, without recourse to 'find .
-type f -exec grep -Hin "<expr>" {} \;' ?
--
Chris R.
======
Not to be taken literally, internally, or seriously.
Hi all, I'm writing a ruby GUI script (run with rubyw) which I've
packaged into a mac app. I launch this from the command line using
open 'my.app', and the debug output goes to the console log, which I
can see with the Console app.
Is there any way I can tie the launching of the app & the debug
output into a Textmate command? The Run command for ruby looks very
pretty:-) And it would mean leaving textmate even less (and more
importantly having 1 less window open & 2 less apps running:-))
Cheers,
graham
